Flowers trapped in the web

Chapter 9

"Dancing with myself, uh oh, dancing with myself" I sang on the rooftop of my building as I painted streaks of blue across the canvas, a blanket wrapped over my shoulders. December had just begun and I was looking forward to seeing some snow soon, going out for hot chocolate and living that New York life, the magic of Christmas lingering in the air. It was a shame MJ was away for the month, she had gone to Canada with her parents, and I was so jealous, but she'd promised to bring us back presents so we couldn't really complain.

There was some sort of commotion in the alley next to the building and I set down my brushes to walk over to the edge and peer over.

"Move on Webhead." A man sneered at the red suited hero who I had grown rather fond of since meeting him a few months ago. By the looks of things, three men had either robbed somewhere or were about to, seeing as they all had balaclavas on their faces, and Spiderman wasn't having any of it.

"Guys, let's talk about this, just give back the money and you are free to go to jail for attempted robbery" I almost snorted at the hero's tone, leaning my arms on the cold stone as I watched this play out.

"Like that's going to happen," another bloke said, pulling out a big knife and I felt a gnawing at my gut, maybe I could provide some help. I grabbed one of the bottles of paint from my easel and went back to the ledge seeing that the fight had progressed and now all the men had some sort of weapon. I held the bottle over the edge, lining it up before squeezing it so paint sprayed down beneath, hitting one of the men on the head, which distracted them enough for Spidey to web them to the wall, collecting their bags presumable containing the money they stole.

"Thank you!" he called up with a wave and I waved the bottle.

"Stay safe Spiderman!" he paused, turning around and I panicked a minute, thinking I had got the wrong name. He began climbing up the wall, bags thrown over his shoulder like they weighed nothing.

"I thought your voice sounded familiar" he said, eye pieces staring at me, blinking occasionally.

"We need to stop meeting like this" I joked, pulling the blanket tighter around me as he crouched on the edge of the roof. "You, okay?"

"Yeah, no harm" he patted his suit, assuring me he was unharmed. "what are you doing up here?" he looked past me to my little set up and his lenses widened, "are you painting?" he hopped towards my canvas, and I followed, amused at his antics.

"Yeah, I'm just working on a piece for the school exhibition"

"What was the theme?" he looked back at me as I trailed behind.

"Days to remember" he stood in front of the painting, and I felt oddly anxious of his thoughts.

"The bounce house" Spiderman recognised, and I nodded, chewing on my lip.

"Yeah, Peter found it the other day and we went on it" he looked towards me.

"it's really good. You should show him"

"I don't want him to think I'm weird"

"He won't, trust me. Where's this exhibition to?"

"Why, planning to stop by?" he shrugged, and I smiled slightly, "it's at Dorsey's Fine Art Gallery, Wednesday 7th between seven and nine."

"Karen set a reminder" I almost forgot about his AI.

"Well, I'd say I hope to see you there, but if you're not in your suit I probably won't recognise you, right?"

"You never know, I'll get Peter to give you my regards" he began walking backwards, "stay safe, okay?"

"Safe is my middle name" I joked, watching him fall off the roof and swing away with a smile.